Additional 0.5r2 download link, and the false positives explanation

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Until the pinned topic can be updated to remove a few broken links and add additional ones, (some still work), here is another alternative download for MTA 0.5r2's files:http://files.projectredivivus.com/mta05r2/

Please note: Your web browser and/or anti-virus program may falsely flag this website and the client installer, (as well as the client executable after installation), as malicious. These are known false positives. You can safely ignore the warnings. Several years ago, anti-virus programs began adding what are called heuristics to their applications in order to detect malicious software that definitions hadn't been created for yet. Unfortunately this also meant that both MTA 0.5 and MTA 0.5r2 were being falsely flagged as trojans or viruses when they contain absolutely no malicious code whatsoever.

The reason behind them being falsely flagged is because years ago, the MTA Team protected the code from reverse engineering using a method called UPX packing. (This was to prevent people from pulling apart the code and creating hack programs or malicious servers). Common malware these days also uses this same method to conceal its code from security programs. Because UPX packing is most commonly used for bad programs more than good ones, many anti-virus companies have defaulted to just flagging anything and everything that is UPX packed as potentially malicious. Sadly this means that MTA 0.5 and MTA 0.5r2 are also wrongly flagged.

I have attempted numerous times to contact Google and multiple anti-virus companies to have this false positive be added as an exception in their systems, however all of my efforts have fallen on deaf ears. Now for the good news: The upcoming version of Multi Theft Auto for GTA III and GTA:VC, MTA 0.6, will not have this problem. As MTA 0.6 is meant to be open-sourced upon release, such protection methods will be unnecessary and pointless, and thus will not be an issue that needs to be addressed.

Many of you may ask, "Why not just release a version of 0.5/0.5r2 without the UPX packing?", and the answer is simple: We can't. The source we have for MTA 0.5, (which was also part of 0.5r2), is several months newer, as it contained several experimental fixes and changes that were not in the released version of 0.5. Several parts of the networking code and versioning internally are also different, so if we were to re-release 0.5/0.5r2 with these changes, it simply wouldn't work properly with existing clients. We could release a 0.5r3 with the UPX packing removed, the experimental code added, and the 0.5r2 and Server Patch 1 fixes included, however there is no telling what issues this may cause for users, and this would also open up a potential security hazard for those that still actively play 0.5r2, and are awaiting a 0.6 release. To us, this is not worth the risk involved.

Now for anyone interested in helping us move forward with 0.6, we are still actively seeking trustworthy, capable developers to further the progress of 0.6. If you are, or you're just looking to check out how things are going, you are more than welcome to join our Discord, forum, and/or bug tracker. We invite everyone interested to come and help spread the word of this awesome modification!